Golden Wonder crisps, former champion of the bagged snacks market, is gearing up for a UK relaunch with revamped packaging, improved flavours and a new campaign.

From next month, the brand will reappear with a more contemporary pack design, but is retaining the sunburst device and branding that helped make it a household name.

The rebranding will be backed by a marketing and advertising campaign that will run initially in Scotland from late next month. The company has signed a deal with a newspaper group, which will give it 70% household penetration in Scotland over three months, and will be supported by both print and TV advertising. Plans to roll out the activity to the rest of the UK later in the year are being finalised.

The move follows the brand's acquisition 18 months ago by an associate company of Tayto Northern Ireland. Golden Wonder was first produced in the 1940s, and grew to become one of the top five UK grocery brands. It even blazed a trail for flavoured crisps in the UK, with the launch of cheese and onion in 1962 but, with the arrival of the now-dominant Walkers brand, its fortunes declined.

"The UK crisp market is dominated by a few major players and we believe there is a real opportunity for Golden Wonder to further enhance its position," said Stephen Hutchinson MD for Golden Wonder.

"Historically with Golden Wonder the unique selling point has been the flavour. We want to go back to basics and really sing about the key thing we feel makes Golden Wonder a strong proposition - that intensity of flavour, which we feel will really appeal to the market.

"We have found once people try Golden Wonder they develop a real loyalty to it, so we have a fantastic opportunity to take the Golden Wonder story to a new level."

This will be reflected in the company's initial marketing campaign, which will be slanted towards 16 to 24-year-olds who are a core part of the crisp and snack market.

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